


Bonfire

by rudbeckia



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Body Horror, Death, Graphic Description of Corpses, Horror, Huxloween, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-07 18:36:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12238437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Do NOT read if you are squeamish.Skip to the note at the end for a spoiler/warning if you’re not sure.General Hux and Kylo Ren have planned a very special bonfire party. It is so exclusive that only a handful of people even know about it and a dozen stormtroopers from Hux’s personal guard are there to keep it that way.Not even Phasma can stand to stay for the whole evening, and she’s been walking with death beside her for her entire life.(Huxloween day 6)





	Bonfire

Ren removed his helmet and cloak. With the exertion of physically moving dry, fallen branches into place, he was red-faced and damp. He could have built the entire structure using the Force, yet he made trip after trip from the clearing into the body of the forest, boots crackling on tinder-dry twigs, to return with fuel. After a few bountiful trips, he stripped off his tunic too and Hux watched familiar muscles ripple beneath the skin of Ren’s stomach and lower back.

Hux was in a similarly overheated state but he remained in full uniform. Not up to the task of dragging large branches, he had taken on the duty of fetching kindling and stacking it loosely around the flammable core of wax-paper that would burst into hot flames at the slightest spark. The low star that served as this planet’s sun bathed the atmosphere with rich reds, and at the slightest breeze gold seemed to drip from the trees.

Soon the sun would set and their fire would light up the night in its place.

Few knew of the bonfire party and even fewer would dare intrude. Phasma arrived with six trusted stormtroopers who brought food and drink and then formed a perimeter guard out of sight and out of earshot between the trees. Lieutenant Mitaka would attend to assist General Hux and although Grand Admiral Sloane knew of the event, Hux doubted that she would spare the time to humour his superstitions.

Ren paced around the shoulder-high oval wood stack and then stood beside Hux.  
“Almost done. You look hot.”  
“Is that a compliment, Kylo?” Hux smiled and Ren laughed.  
“I would not be so forward. But I am glad that you are here and in good humour.” Ren called to Phasma, “Is the final piece prepared?”  
“Yes,” she replied, after chewing and swallowing a piece of jogan fruit dipped in a soft, sweet coating. “Lieutenant Mitaka and Chief Petty Officer Unamo are bringing it in a transport with the remaining stormtroopers of the general’s personal guard. Everything is proceeding according to plan.”  
“So far,” murmured Hux for only Kylo to hear. Louder, he admonished Phasma, “Captain, it is improper to eat before the fire has caught.” Phasma walked away from the refreshments with her apology in her expression. Hux relented with a smile. “You may remain if you wish. Have you attended an event such as this before?”  
“No,” said Phasma, replacing her helmet. “It would be considered a waste of valuable resources where I come from.”  
“Indeed,” replied Hux a little sharply. “But you have left no trace of your past behind you. Look to your future.”

Before the sun slipped too far below the tree-line, Mitaka and Unamo arrived with six stormtroopers following them. The stormtroopers carried a large woven bag and, although bulky, it did not appear that they were troubled by its weight. Mitaka directed them to hoist the bag on top of the shoulder-high wood pile while Unamo reported to General Hux that the Grand Admiral sent her best wishes but regretfully could not attend. Task completed to Mitaka’s satisfaction, the stormtroopers melted into the greying forest. Mitaka, Unamo and Phasma stood aside. Ren dressed himself again when Hux told him to show respect for tradition, but set his helmet down on a moss-clad rock by his feet. 

Hux stepped close to the wood-pile then reached up and flicked open the nearest end of the cloth bag, smiling at its withered and wasted contents. He walked around it, pulling the oil-soaked cloth edges apart until his prize lay exposed to the deep blue sky. A few pinprick stars looked down on the clearing and Hux wondered if they knew they were witnesses to something momentous.

“Now, please, Ren.” Hux walked to Ren and held out his hand. Ren stepped forward, pulled out his lightsaber and ignited the red plasma blade. Ren’s face and Hux’s lit up in the glow, and they smiled, looking almost demonic in the darkness. Ren grasped the hilt but made room for Hux’s hand beside his own, and together they walked forward and plunged the blade deep into the heart of the pyre.

Flames caught and spread immediately. The few orange and yellow tongues that licked upwards quickly became an inferno that roared and crackled and spat. Heat haze distorted the air above it and thick smoke rose fast, convected by the heat. Ren stared at the burning, twisted object so carefully positioned on top and wondered if he should speak, but no words could convey his emotion. Hux turned his gaze from the fire to Ren’s face. He moved his hand from where it still clutched the hilt of Ren’s lightsaber to Ren’s arm. Somewhere in the forest, creatures howled and screamed at the disturbance in their darkness. Hux shivered despite the radiant heat roasting his cheeks. He leaned close to Ren’s ear and said, “It’s over. Can’t you feel it?” 

Staring at transient faces made by the flames, Ren nodded slowly. After what could have been minutes or an eternity in which dead tendons shrunk and muscles contracted as they dried and burned, turning the white, gaping, toothless skull this way and that, and charred, stumps of limbs rose and waved as if in the throes of new agony at this second death, Hux spared a glance across to where Mitaka, Unamo and Phasma stood. Unamo stared at her boots. Mitaka looked off to the side, into the trees, hand over his mouth and face twisted in horror. Phasma stared at the blackened and smouldering remains, her chrome reflecting yellow and red flickers and white hot shimmer. Hux nodded to Phasma when her head turned towards him, and she stepped back, saluted then walked away. Unamo and Mitaka trotted in her wake. After a minute, Hux thought he heard retching. In front of them, fluids bubbled and hissed, dripping and coagulating and darkening, burning smoky and black and stinking up the clearing. 

Time passed without troubling to be counted. The fire raged without fury now, and exposed ribs seemed caressed by the hot glow of embers with only occasional crackles and pops of flames exploding up to tickle at the thickest bones. The skull was out of sight. Hux had watched it detach when the remaining ligaments and tendons of its neck had burned to vapour and sailed heavenwards, the steaming sockets turning as if to blame him for one last failure in the second before it sank with a crackle, accepted into the heart of the fire where it would be rendered into harmless ash. 

Hux rested his hand on Ren’s shoulder. Ren’s eyes reflected amber glow from the pyre and he smiled, a grimace that showed white teeth reflecting yellow. Hux smiled back.  
“You can rest, Kylo. You can stop. Snoke really is gone. There’s no coming back from this death. Not this time.” He gave Ren’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “We have been here for hours. There’s only hip bones, a couple of chunks of femur and maybe a few bits of the larger vertebrae left. We could go if you want. Leave the stormtroopers to make sure the site is not disturbed. Come back when it has cooled down to collect his ashes for your collection.”  
“No.” Ren’s voice allowed no argument. He shook his head. “Take your stormtroopers and leave me here. I will stay until the very end.”  
“As you wish,” replied Hux with a shrug. “At least eat something. I made jogan fruit toffees and jogan cider. I know how much you like them.”

Ren ripped his gaze away from the pyre at that, amber glow leaking away from his irises, grimace softening into a grin. He covered his mouth, shoulders shaking with mirth that escaped as a hiccupped giggle, then he laughed without reserve. Hux felt his fatigue ease at the unusual sound.  
“Jogan fruit! Armitage...” Ren sighed and enveloped Hux in a hug, held him tight and kissed him. “Yes. Thank you. I will eat jogan fruit toffees and drink cider when we get back to the transport. Just promise me you did not also bring marshmallows to toast on Snoke’s pyre.”

**Author's Note:**

> Contains graphic descriptions of what happens to an exposed corpse on a funeral pyre. It’s not like Vader in RotJ at all.


End file.
